Adventure activities are defined as guided recreational or educational activities, paid for by a participant, which may expose the participant to some form of potential serious risk the operator must manage.
This includes activities such as abseiling, rock climbing, caving, off-road vehicle driving, and quad biking.
Applications from organisations, schools, or sports clubs to run adventure activities on Council land will not be granted unless the organisation uses a registered adventure activity operator.
Applications from specialist recreation groups or New Zealand Land Search and Rescue Inc. (LandSAR) may be approved subject to demonstrating they can meet a similar standard to a registered adventure activity operator.
Applications must be received at least 21 working days before the date of the activity.
How to check if an operator is registered
WorkSafe provides a public list of registered adventure activity operators. It is an offence for an adventure activity operator not to be registered.
Registered operators must pass a safety audit and are authorised to provide the activities listed on the register for the stated period.
Register of adventure activity operators (worksafe.govt.nz)
Criteria
The following criteria must be meet for a permit to be granted:
- The applicant has filled in the full application form and ticked the declaration options.
- Applications from organisations, schools, or sports clubs to undertake adventure activities on Council land must use a WorkSafe registered adventure activity operator.
- Applications from specialist recreation groups or New Zealand Land Search and Rescue Inc. (LandSAR) must demonstrate they can meet a similar standard to a registered adventure activity operator.
- Parks and Recreation Department has assessed that there are no conflicting activities taking place at the same time.
Responsibilities
The event organiser is responsible for ensuring that all aspects of the event and the commercial adventure activities are planned, organised, and conducted in accordance with this policy and any other applicable laws and regulations.
The registered adventure activity operator is responsible for ensuring that all aspects of the commercial adventure activities are delivered in accordance with their registration certificate and safety audit report, and that they comply with their duties under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 and its regulations.
The Council is responsible for administering this process for the granting of approvals for commercial adventure activities on Council land.